1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to a display terminal, and in particular to a user interface for such a terminal.
2. Related Art
Computer art systems have the capability to "flood" a color or pattern within the boundary of a closed area displayed on a computer screen. Hitherto, conventional on-line catalogs have typically relied upon an arrangement analogous to that in a traditional showroom including, for example, photographs of a product in one selected finish together with details of alternative finishes.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a user interface for a display terminal, the user interface comprising:
a 3-dimensional display region including one or more displayed objects; PA1 a surface finish selector arranged to display to the user a plurality of alternative surface finishes for the said one or more displayed objects; PA1 a user input device for selecting one of the plurality of alternative surface finishes; PA1 means responsive to the user input device for reading, from a source which is remote from the terminal, data for a surface finish selected by the user, and PA1 a display generator for mapping the selected surface finish onto the displayed object using the said data. PA1 a) displaying a 3-dimensional environment including one or more objects, PA1 b) displaying to a user samples of surface finishes which may be applied to the one or more objects, PA1 c) selecting by a user input one of the surface finishes; PA1 d) retrieving from a source which is remote from the terminal, surface data corresponding to the selected finish; PA1 e) mapping the said surface data onto the one or more objects in the 3-dimensional environment. PA1 a) loading and displaying on the terminal a web page including a plurality of surface finishes; PA1 b) loading and displaying on the terminal a web page including a 3-dimensional environment, which 3-dimensional environment includes one or more objects; PA1 c) in response to selection by the user of one of the plurality of surface finishes displayed in step (a), importing surface finish data and mapping the said data onto one of the said objects displayed in step (b).
Preferably the surface finish selector includes a 2-dimensional display of samples of the said surface finishes. Preferably the surface finish selector further comprises icons representing displayed objects to which the finishes shown in the samples may be applied.
The term "3-dimensional (3D) display" as used herein denotes a display with properties of perspective and/or parallax. It is not limited in scope to stereoscopic displays, such as those generated by a virtual reality headset, but includes also displays generated on a conventional 2-dimensional (2D) monitor.
The present invention provides a display terminal designed to facilitate on-line access, for example, to the catalogue of a furniture retailer. In real life, a furniture retailer may offer, for example, a dozen different sofas, each available in a number of different fabrics. Typically, the retailer will have on display in a showroom one example of each sofa in one fabric. The display sofa may be located in a set intended to represent a domestic interior. The customer is then shown fabric swatches and has to imagine what the sofa would look like in different materials in its intended setting. Just as in real life limitations of space prevent a retailer including in a showroom all the different possible permutations of shape and fabric, so also in conventional on-line catalogues, limitations of storage space and connection bandwidth have made it impractical to display directly the entire range. Hitherto, such on-line catalogues have typically relied upon an arrangement analogous to that in the showroom, including, for examples, photographs of a product in one selected finish, together with details of alternative finishes.
The present invention overcomes these limitations by providing a 3-dimensional display of the relevant product, together with a display of sample finishes, and then downloading from a remote source the data which is needed in order to map the selected finish onto the product in the 3-dimensional display. This allows the user to see directly and realistically any or all of the different combinations of product and fabric. This is made possible without unduly heavy demands on the storage capacity or bandwidth of the terminal, since typically only one selected finish need be downloaded at a time and the amount of data required to display a 2D sample of a finish is very much less than that required for a complete 3D texture map.
Preferably the user interface further comprises a movement controller for moving a viewpoint in the 3D display in response to a user input.
This preferred feature enables the user to make a more realistic assessment of a product including the selected finish by viewing it from different angles and at different distances. The movement controller may include control buttons displayed adjacent the 3D region, or may include a user input device with multiple degrees of freedom such as the 3D mouse available commercially as "Spacemouse".
Preferably both the surface finish selector and the 3-dimensional display region form part of a Web page displayed by a web client running on the said display terminal. Preferably in this case each of the surface finish samples includes a link to an internet address, or other network address, of the corresponding texture file. This preferred approach imports textures into a live web page over the internet.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a display terminal including a user interface in accordance with the first aspect. The terminal may be, for example, a personal computer with an internet connection, or may be a dedicated multimedia terminal such as BT's Touchpoint (Trademark) kiosk.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of operating a display terminal comprising:
The 3-D environment may have been previously downloaded from a remote source, or may have been constructed or modified locally, for example using data for the home environment of the user.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of operating a display terminal comprising: